{"id":806,"date":"2013-06-13T21:38:48","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T21:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=806"},"modified":"2014-07-17T03:25:42","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T03:25:42","slug":"missions-and-quitting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/missions-and-quitting\/","title":{"rendered":"Missions and Quitting"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have wanted to quit many times.\u00a0 There was the first major time, when we had just arrived in Spain with a one year old, and were trying to find a place to live, without really knowing any of the language or culture, or where we should live.\u00a0 It was overwhelming, and we were completely dependent on our brand new Spanish friend and co-worker, Migue.\u00a0 It was all a blur, replete with the giant question of: \u201cwhat did I get my family into?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There were many other times as well.\u00a0 Times of frustration and sadness.\u00a0 Times of failure and culture stress, of wrestling with the bureaucracy and inefficiency of a visa process.\u00a0 Marital conflicts.\u00a0 Struggling with the language.\u00a0 Not knowing what to do.\u00a0 Some more failure.\u00a0 Watching other good friends and co-workers leave.\u00a0 Worrying about the physical and mental development of our son.\u00a0 Loneliness.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

I have been in Spain for 8 years now, working to help college students and high school students encounter the life changing love of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 I have wanted to, and my wife and I have talked about, packing it all in and heading home on several occasions.\u00a0 But, we didn\u2019t.\u00a0 We are still here.\u00a0 I am glad.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were times when the easy and comfortable thing to do would have been to head back to Texas, eat good BBQ, and hang with friends.\u00a0 Now after eight years, that option seems almost incomprehensible to us.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Seth Godin\u2019s book The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (And When to Stick)<\/em> delves into the issue of quitting and from a business standpoint explains that there are times to quit, and there are times to stick.\u00a0 Godin\u2019s main thesis is that sometimes when things get hard, it is those who stick with it, despite frustrations and failures that are then destined by out lasting the competition and building competence in hardship, to succeed.\u00a0 Moreover, he also explains that there are times to quit.\u00a0 There are times when the road one is on is simply a road to nowhere.\u00a0 There is no light at the end of the tunnel, and our energies are being wasted on a dead end street, when they could be refocused on new and better opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I read through Godin\u2019s book, I was struck by a number of realities to my own situation.\u00a0 There is a time to quit, and there is a time to stick.\u00a0 Being a missionary, like most things in life, is hard.\u00a0 The background culture stress, as much as you learn to love a people and a country, never goes away.\u00a0 You are never fully at home in your new culture, but the longer you stay the least likely you are ever to feel at home in your native culture.\u00a0 I have seen a lot of people come and go in Spain.\u00a0 The one constant was that at some point there was a significant learning curve, a season of frustration, a time of deep questioning, apropos to my setting- a dark night of the soul.\u00a0 If the repeated statistic is correct, then 1 out of every 3 missionaries doesn\u2019t finish their first assignment.\u00a0 Depression is common.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

In Godin\u2019s grid, what does this all mean?\u00a0 Well for one, perseverance is important.\u00a0 Everyone will go through a period of wanting to quit, and seeming like that is the best option, on the mission field.\u00a0 There are just too many obstacles.\u00a0 It is just too hard.\u00a0 But, what I have seen is that through perseverance and patience, and time, things get better.\u00a0 Language is learned, friends are made, and the feeling of competency begins to grow.\u00a0 (Most will feel like a small child in their first year or so).\u00a0 Patience and perseverance, and time.\u00a0 A small child learning to walk or talk needs these.\u00a0 They also need a patient and loving set of parents who they can trust.\u00a0 And ultimately this has been one of the great experiences of having to face quitting in its deepest, darkest, scariest moment.\u00a0 Is God good?\u00a0 Can I trust him?\u00a0 Will he provide?\u00a0 Ultimately the experience of quitting must draw us into the presence of God, into the reality of trusting him when he seems not to be there.\u00a0 When God is silent, we can still trust him.<\/span><\/p>\n

While Godin couches his thesis in the parameters of success, winning, and effectiveness, we must remember that this is not the currency of our God.\u00a0 Thus, God is there in the quitting and in the failure as well.\u00a0 Yes, sometimes it is time for some to quit the mission field.\u00a0 There is burnout and depression, or a sense that one no longer has anything to add, or has reached a dead end.\u00a0 These decisions need to be made in prayer and with a community, mainly to protect those missionaries who will be affected.\u00a0 But, there are times for the health and safety of the missionary, or just good old fashioned wisdom, that quitting will be good, and even freeing.\u00a0 Then, of course there will a time period of guilt and regret and sadness over the perceived failure, of not being able to \u201ccut it.\u201d\u00a0 Here once again quitting must draw us back to God, knowing there is no condemnation in Him, only the loving arms of a father who understands how hard it can be.\u00a0 There is only the loving embrace of a brother who wanted to quit, but did not, so that we could rest in his perfect sacrifice.\u00a0 One who could be made strong in our weaknesses, and who can resurrect out broken dreams and our failures to something much greater.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

So yes, on the mission field it is important to know when to quit and when to persevere.\u00a0 Sticking through a hard time can lead to great opportunities.\u00a0 My wife and I have seen and been a part of things that we could never have imagined 8 years ago, when we first arrived.\u00a0 We love what we do.\u00a0 However, through it all, whether we quit of persevere, we must rely on the goodness and perfection of God, that in our success and our failures he is near, and he loves us, and that weakness is ultimately drawing us closer to him.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have wanted to quit many times.\u00a0 There was the first major time, when we had just arrived in Spain with a one year old, and were trying to find a place to live, without really knowing any of the language or culture, or where we should live.\u00a0 It was overwhelming, and we were completely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,318,317,307],"class_list":["post-806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-global-missions","tag-godin","tag-missions","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1260,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions\/1260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}